Can We Avoid Becoming Captive to the Spirit of the Age?

This is a very important question especially in times of political and cultural turbulence such as ours. In this blog I want to observe a difference between two conservative American Christians, Eric Mextaxes' and Nancy French, and ask why one support Trump and the other denounces him. 

All of us are, inevitably and understandably, children of our age. The way we see the world, and many of the things we consider to be self-evident about it, are simply the result of our culture and upbringing and future generations will judge us just as we judge our grandparents generation for what they believed. It's a sobering reality and yet the question that every conscientious follower of Christ must ask themselves is: how can I ensure that my beliefs and values are shaped more by Christ and his teaching than by my culture? 

In every age and in every culture there are aspects of that culture that are neutral, some redeemable and some that must be rejected. The challenge however and the thing that's perplexing me, is how/why thoughtful Christians can disagree so fundamentally on what those things are. 

It's likely that my not being an American affords me a different perspective on Trump or (depending on who you talk to) it might simply be that my negative view of Trump is because of 'legacy media' and its reporting bias. Only God knows the truth but I've seen and heard enough to know that Donald Trump is hardly a moral man and he's certainly not a man surrendered to Christ. 

Jonathan Haidt in his book The Righteous Mind demonstrates that our moral and political instincts are somewhat preset by our neurochemistry (some of us are 'left-leaning', others 'right leaning' here). I've also  read elsewhere about the power of 'in-group' dynamics and how they can push people deeper and deeper into ideological positions. In the U.S. the myth of American exceptionalism seems to have a powerful hold on many people and shapes the way that many American Christians think about their place in the world. 

There's a lot stacked against any attempt to think freely or to be 'transformed by the renewal of our minds' (Romans 12:2). Our cultural and psychological blinkers certainly prevent us from seeing things and I'm undoubtedly not without my own! It is hard to truly think for oneself and yet I must remain hopeful, I have to. I need it to be true, please God let it be true, that we can be renewed by the word of God and that Christ can and will be formed in his people.

Nancy French and Eric Metaxes are both public evangelicals. They're both bestselling authors, both politically conservative and both of them are concerned about what's happening in America. They also hold diametrically opposed opinions of Trump's presidency. One laments where another lauds and whilst one denounces the state of the Union the other declares Trump its saviour.

In 2009 Eric Metaxes wrote a superb and widely acclaimed book about the German theologian and activist Dietrich Bonhoeffer. To write the book he had to read almost everything Bonhoeffer had written. He studied Bonhoeffer's life, interviewed relatives and studied his political theology. He worked hard to get into Bonhoeffer's mind and empathise as best as he could with his (very reluctant) journey from pacifism to violent resistance. 

In his day Bonhoeffer lamented the capitulation of the German clergy to National Socialism, something that eventually let to him setting up a denomination of confessing Christians. With Hitler's rise to power Bonhoeffer saw the emergence of a national strongman, someone who presented himself as a saviour of the nation. Nazism, an ideology based on power, dominance, national pride and the despising of weakness gripped the national conscientiousness. At first Hitler co-opted Christian language and won many believers to his side but later, after he'd risen to power, he became much more adversarial toward the faith. 

After being immersed in this world for so long Eric Metaxes has become convinced that Christians ought to engage politically and he believes that the American church is in danger of sleepwalking into disaster just as the German one did in the '30s. His recent book A Letter to the American Church makes this case. Mextases' concerns about the Biden administration's stance on sexuality, trans and abortion and the silence or capitulation of many American churches to progressive or politically correct ideology has only served to fuel his concerns.

Fast forward a few years and Metaxes now regularly tweets about politics and publicly endorses policies he agrees with. After studying Bonhoeffer for so long this is precisely the sort of thing you might expect from him. What I, as a Christian, find so utterly bewildering however is his public and proud and even 'Christian' endorsement of Trump's presidency. I find it all deeply troubling which has led me to wonder whether it's even possible to avoid be captured by the spirit of the age, whatever it might be.

Consider this (blasphemous?) tweet Metaxes endorsed after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies in 2024: 'If you're concerned about voting for a convicted criminal, remember that you worship one.' 

More recently, following the vile mistreatment of Zelensky by Trump and his cronies in the Oval Office  he wrote: "we have NEVER seen anything close to the leadership we are seeing in Trump and Vance... it is a gift from God that we are seeing this kind of leadership."

"Gift from God?"

By contrast fellow conservative Nancy French stands opposed to Trump. 

In 2012 she appeared at the Conservative Party Action Conference alongside her husband David French as he was awarded the Ronald Reagan award. They were (she was) much loved members of the Republican party and a ghostwriter for many political leaders, having written for senators and former first lady's alike. 

When Trump earned the nomination of the Republicans in 2015 however she felt that she couldn't, in clear conscience, endorse his campaign. This was a decision that cost her dearly, something she writes about in her superb 2024 memoir 'Ghosted'.

Recently French re-posted a video shared by Trump in which gold statues of him appear in Gaza (here). She posted "This will not end well for him. Or us." 

How, one wonders, can Metaxes and French see things so differently? More concerningly, to me at least, how can Metaxes be so blind to the pagan Caesar vibes Trump is casually giving off? If someone can write a book like he can and still be so susceptible to a narcissists narratives as to call him 'God's gift' what hope do any of us have? How can we avoid the spirit of the age? I believe that French's story and experience offers us some insights and hope. 

Now, I don't know Metaxes' life story or what's made him see the world in the way that he does but in Ghosted Nancy French shares some of the loss and trauma she's had to process in her life. She explains some of her up-close encounters with evil and grief and she shows how those things have served to give her the clear-sightedness she possess today. Through those things it's clear that she's become a woman of tremendous courage and conviction. 

Her example highlights for us perhaps that the path to a perspective that's free from herd thinking, and that begins to look a little like Jesus' renewed way, is found not by reading books but by living through experiences of vulnerability and weakness. 

There are, no doubt, many ways that we can hope to escape the grip of our age's errors but I believe it begins with first becoming disillusioned with one's own society. We must come to disassociate from what we once called our own. Perhaps we see corruption or apathy or evil, perhaps we realise that our culture isn't as superior to others as we once thought it was. Whatever it is and however we arrive there it's vital, before we can begin anew, that our world first 'ends'. 

World's End

In biblical language this 'end' is called 'exile', and that's exactly what needs to happen to a person before they can hope to be free from the World's Spirit. In the Old Testament Prophets we learn that despite numerous attempts at reform God's people were left with only one option. Yahweh had tried imploring, rebuking, forgiving, warning but none of it had worked. 

The society and the world that the Israelites had built for themselves needed to come crashing down if they were to have any hope of lasting change. In 722BC the ten northern tribes were deported to Assyria, never to return and in 598BC Judah was enslaved by Babylon leaving Jerusalem in ruins and the people without protection. They were traumatic and devastating events and the centuries that followed weren't much more stable either.

By the waters of Babylon,

there we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion. 

Psalm 137:1 

Seventy years later the rebuilding began and in that time the nation had been forever changed. The way God would relate to them would change and the way they saw their place in the world changed as well. 

During this time their pride and self-confidence had been stripped from them, they'd come face to face with human depravity and spiritual evil, the wickedness of foreign gods, became all too real. The Old Testament contains surprisingly few encounters with demons and the Devil is barely a walk-on part in the story, but by the time Jesus begins his ministry demons are seemingly everywhere, indeed his ministry begins with an encounter with the Devil. Exile had brought with it a return of the old gods as the evil driven out out by Joshua came rushing back in to their land. 

With these encounters however and through this exile the nation finally broke free from the curse of idolatry, something that (ever since Rachel stole her father's gods) had been a blight in their land. From this point on however idols are banished for good and from this point on the people become committed afresh to ritual purity and devotion. 

Many sects within Judaism existed in the time of Christ and all of them were concerned with religious purism. The exile must never be allowed to happen again. They must learn to live as Yahweh's people and only Yahweh's people.

Back to the present. 

Once someone has been exiled from or become disillusioned by their society it brings them low and makes them humble. Once they then return (read: arrive with a distrust of self and a longing for Christ) they're able to, with the Apostle Paul, 'put no confidence in the flesh'. In Philippians 3 Paul says that if anyone had reason to put confidence in himself and his abilities it was him, and yet he does so no longer. Paul instead shares his desire is now simply to 'know Christ' and to know the power of his resurrection and 'participation in his sufferings.' Participation in his sufferings. No longer does the great Apostle have an appetite for worldly status. No longer is he charmed by the glory and trinkets of the world. He's seen through those things and has come to see that true glory and true riches are to be found by identifying with Christ's suffering. That, more than comfort or acclaim is what he's living for.

Seeing strength in weakness and coming even to boast in one's weakness is anathema to the world. To Nancy French however it was discovering Jesus at her point of weakness that, I believe, set her free and enable her to resist the spirit of her peers' Christian nationalism.

French's stand has cost her dearly but perhaps it's that that makes her resistance morally admirable in the first place. Perhaps that's how we can tell the difference between appearing free and actually being free. 

Question: when is signalling your virtue not a virtue-signal? Answer: when it costs you something. 

It's easy to post something online in support of a view that plenty of people in your tribe agree with. It's not a morally costly act to change your facebook profile in support of the latest public injustice. All too often these behaviours simply promote our standing among people who already agree with us. 

For Eric Metaxes to write a book slamming liberal politics is not a Prophetic act since (sadly and bizarrely) for a conservative Christian to 'ride' the Trump train doesn't set you at odds with fellow evangelicals. 

To become free and to avoid whatever worldly influence is in danger of smothering us we must be willing to risk something, to lose something. And generally we're only willing to lose something when we've already lost everything. It's only after having been exiled that the world loses its charm and with its charm, its grip as well.

After all what good is it to gain the whole world if you forfeit your soul?